Even though music genre's can seem totally different, the most different types of music can influence each other.
I've decided to walk you through the history of how rock and blues came to be. Below are the key questions that I used to gather information.
1. How did this person's music, help influence future artists?
2. Why was this music so popular, to the point that many people wanted to emulate that sound?
3. What was it about the way the artists lived that inspired many people to live the same way?
1930-1990
Music has influenced the way people have lived and acted for many many years. In the early 1900's, music was starting to become very, very popular. Clubs were started just for music. And music actually had major influence on the Harlem Renaissance. Back in the 1920's, jazz music was very popular with the African American culture. People like Louis Armstrong, and Miles Davis practically invented jazz. However, there was a "darker" side to jazz. That would be the blues. While most jazz songs make things joyful, and happy, blues was the side that was more melancholic. It was unexpected. A song like "Back Door Man" (Willie Dixon) could be sung, and be appreciated. Back in the 1930's blues was just starting to get popular. A very famous blues musician was Robert Johnson. Robert Johnson was a black man growing up during the great depression in Mississippi. Mississippi was a farming state, and the all the farmers were hit extremely hard back in that time. Not to mention that he was from an extremely poor family, but he was also the minority, and back in that time, that was a hard thing to be. He defined the way blues came into effect. From him alone, many blues artists such as B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Stevie Ray Vaughn and many more came into effect. Even after Robert Johnson, a whole bunch of people starting playing the blues. It wasn't a planned thing, but people were drawn to it. People like Eric Clapton would come from across the sea's to play with blues groups. There are many elements of call and response, however the call and response is in his guitar playing. You will hear his regular voice, then the response will be an add on from his guitar.
Robert Johnson
"Drunken Hearted Man"
Robert Johnson-1937
Another really popular form of music started coming into play here. At this point, most artists were coming from the south, and so it was to be expected when southern music started. Country songs were about anything, just like the blues. There was a lot of sadness in them, and a lot of depressing things, however the difference was you could hear the southern accent dominating the vocals. The songs consisted of singing about women, jail, drinking, fighting and many more. Someone who really cleared the way for country music, was Johnny Cash. Johnny started out as someone just trying to get in the music business in the 1950's. His first few songs was actually baptist hymns. However, his first song that he recorded for a record label, was Folsom Prison Blues. Now this is a popular blues song, however it is also labeled as country, because the style in which it is sung, isn't like a normal blues song. There is no improvisation, and it is focused on the lyrics rather than the music or the sound of the voice. Johnny Cash also did a lot of renditions of other songs. He actually really loved Bob Dylan, who was around the same time. Bob Dylan was more of a singer songwriter though. Folk music was his thing. His style especially focused on the lyrics. It's not like he was a great guitar player, or even a great singer, however, he was a poet. In the song below you find a good structure, and you also find a solo. That is from the blues genre.
Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash
"Folsom Prison Blues"
Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two- 1951
Now the 1950's was a very important time. The first electric guitar that was widely used was the Fender Telecaster. One of Johnny Cash's band members used one. Bob Dylan would sometimes use them. Fender soon released the Stratocaster, which is one of the most famous guitar's in history. The Strat was widely used in Rock music. This started the era of electric blues music, and rock. Blues actually started getting even more popular at this time. Famous rock musicians like Jimi Hendrix, would have songs that would be rock, but then again, the structure of the rhythm was that of blues. Eric Clapton, and Duane Allman also had that style of playing. Stevie Ray Vaughn specialized in the electric blues. So did other bands like ZZ Top, and Derek and the Dominoes (Eric Clapton's band). Jimi Hendrix makes great use of all these genre's. Blues, jazz, rock, they all were used. The simple structure with add ons and solos are very obvious.
"The Wind Cries Mary"
Jimi Hendrix-1967
Jimi Hendrix
The Blues/Rock genre started to die down when the seventies came. New bands with driving sounds sounds started becoming bigger. Bands like Led Zeppelin, The Doors, Rush, Soundgarden, these bands started dominating the way rock sounded. Led Zeppelin is a huge influence in the modern rock world. They were the number one band of the 70's. Distortion in amps and in monitors were starting to get used a lot more. Towards the end of the 70's, a genre called pop music started coming into play. Pop music was the music that generally everyone liked. Now if you were a musician at this time, you most likely hated pop, however if your looking at the high school kids, thats what they listened to. In 1979, and Irish band was formed. That band was U2. U2 started out like an Irish punk band, but pretty soon they evolved into a different kind of sound. The type of songs they had were not the type thats that was the usual sound. Their songs did not focus on one person. The talent was equally spread across the band members, and that's possibly why they are still together to this day. T
"Sunday Bloody Sunday"
U2-1982
Unfortunately, the 1980's were not kind to Rock music. At this time if you were a rock musician, then your whole mindset was usually you didn't care about your health, and you usually either did hard drugs or alcohol. You had to pretty much be crazy to be a fan of rock, or even play rock. Guns and Roses, Aerosmith, Van Halen, and many other bands, were practically drugged out of their minds. U2 was one of the best bands of that time that did not do drugs or drink obscene amounts of alcohol. The 90's was a sort of rehab for all the other drugged out bands. Now this doesn't mean that the drug use stopped. There was still a lot of drugs in the bands, but the music started to get better. In 1990, a band called Nirvana was born. Kurt Cobain was a small time punk rocker, his guitar skills weren't all that special, however his lyrics and his style of playing brought a whole new sound to the genre of Rock N' Roll, the grunge sound. The grunge style also showed how he lived. Kurt didn't seem to care about his outward appearance, all that mattered to him was the music that he made. He did however have a bad heroin addiction, which would drive him to his suicide three years after Nirvana was started. Another band that started to take off was the Red Hot Chili Peppers. They had a unique style of funk, punk, and rock. They were also a very talented band and their songs were widely played. In a lot of the songs however, John Frusciante (the guitar player) shows a lot of similarities with Jimi Hendrix in regards to rhythm guitar.
"Under the Bridge"
Red Hot Chili Peppers-1992
US Census
In the 1930's there were a lot of people aspiring to be musicians. Blues was mainly in the south as in Memphis, Tennessee, then Jazz was mainly in the north as in New York, New York, and Chicago, Illinois. The south was a key music area and it still is to this day. However when the 60's rolled in, many artists starting coming from the west. Places like California, Washington, and Illinois were popular areas. From the eighties until now, people starting coming from everywhere to play in America. Places like Ireland, England, Mexico, and many other places. A very famous music city in Georgia is Athens. Athens, Georgia has many artists from it's area.
Even though music genre's can seem totally different, the most different types of music can influence each other.
I've decided to walk you through the history of how rock and blues came to be. Below are the key questions that I used to gather information.
1. How did this person's music, help influence future artists?
2. Why was this music so popular, to the point that many people wanted to emulate that sound?
3. What was it about the way the artists lived that inspired many people to live the same way?
1930-1990
Music has influenced the way people have lived and acted for many many years. In the early 1900's, music was starting to become very, very popular. Clubs were started just for music. And music actually had major influence on the Harlem Renaissance. Back in the 1920's, jazz music was very popular with the African American culture. People like Louis Armstrong, and Miles Davis practically invented jazz. However, there was a "darker" side to jazz. That would be the blues. While most jazz songs make things joyful, and happy, blues was the side that was more melancholic. It was unexpected. A song like "Back Door Man" (Willie Dixon) could be sung, and be appreciated. Back in the 1930's blues was just starting to get popular. A very famous blues musician was Robert Johnson. Robert Johnson was a black man growing up during the great depression in Mississippi. Mississippi was a farming state, and the all the farmers were hit extremely hard back in that time. Not to mention that he was from an extremely poor family, but he was also the minority, and back in that time, that was a hard thing to be. He defined the way blues came into effect. From him alone, many blues artists such as B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Stevie Ray Vaughn and many more came into effect. Even after Robert Johnson, a whole bunch of people starting playing the blues. It wasn't a planned thing, but people were drawn to it. People like Eric Clapton would come from across the sea's to play with blues groups. There are many elements of call and response, however the call and response is in his guitar playing. You will hear his regular voice, then the response will be an add on from his guitar.
"Drunken Hearted Man"
Robert Johnson-1937
Another really popular form of music started coming into play here. At this point, most artists were coming from the south, and so it was to be expected when southern music started. Country songs were about anything, just like the blues. There was a lot of sadness in them, and a lot of depressing things, however the difference was you could hear the southern accent dominating the vocals. The songs consisted of singing about women, jail, drinking, fighting and many more. Someone who really cleared the way for country music, was Johnny Cash. Johnny started out as someone just trying to get in the music business in the 1950's. His first few songs was actually baptist hymns. However, his first song that he recorded for a record label, was Folsom Prison Blues. Now this is a popular blues song, however it is also labeled as country, because the style in which it is sung, isn't like a normal blues song. There is no improvisation, and it is focused on the lyrics rather than the music or the sound of the voice. Johnny Cash also did a lot of renditions of other songs. He actually really loved Bob Dylan, who was around the same time. Bob Dylan was more of a singer songwriter though. Folk music was his thing. His style especially focused on the lyrics. It's not like he was a great guitar player, or even a great singer, however, he was a poet. In the song below you find a good structure, and you also find a solo. That is from the blues genre.
Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash
"Folsom Prison Blues"
Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two- 1951
Now the 1950's was a very important time. The first electric guitar that was widely used was the Fender Telecaster. One of Johnny Cash's band members used one. Bob Dylan would sometimes use them. Fender soon released the Stratocaster, which is one of the most famous guitar's in history. The Strat was widely used in Rock music. This started the era of electric blues music, and rock. Blues actually started getting even more popular at this time. Famous rock musicians like Jimi Hendrix, would have songs that would be rock, but then again, the structure of the rhythm was that of blues. Eric Clapton, and Duane Allman also had that style of playing. Stevie Ray Vaughn specialized in the electric blues. So did other bands like ZZ Top, and Derek and the Dominoes (Eric Clapton's band). Jimi Hendrix makes great use of all these genre's. Blues, jazz, rock, they all were used. The simple structure with add ons and solos are very obvious.
"The Wind Cries Mary"
Jimi Hendrix-1967
Jimi Hendrix
The Blues/Rock genre started to die down when the seventies came. New bands with driving sounds sounds started becoming bigger. Bands like Led Zeppelin, The Doors, Rush, Soundgarden, these bands started dominating the way rock sounded. Led Zeppelin is a huge influence in the modern rock world. They were the number one band of the 70's. Distortion in amps and in monitors were starting to get used a lot more. Towards the end of the 70's, a genre called pop music started coming into play. Pop music was the music that generally everyone liked. Now if you were a musician at this time, you most likely hated pop, however if your looking at the high school kids, thats what they listened to. In 1979, and Irish band was formed. That band was U2. U2 started out like an Irish punk band, but pretty soon they evolved into a different kind of sound. The type of songs they had were not the type thats that was the usual sound. Their songs did not focus on one person. The talent was equally spread across the band members, and that's possibly why they are still together to this day. T
"Sunday Bloody Sunday"
U2-1982
Unfortunately, the 1980's were not kind to Rock music. At this time if you were a rock musician, then your whole mindset was usually you didn't care about your health, and you usually either did hard drugs or alcohol. You had to pretty much be crazy to be a fan of rock, or even play rock. Guns and Roses, Aerosmith, Van Halen, and many other bands, were practically drugged out of their minds. U2 was one of the best bands of that time that did not do drugs or drink obscene amounts of alcohol. The 90's was a sort of rehab for all the other drugged out bands. Now this doesn't mean that the drug use stopped. There was still a lot of drugs in the bands, but the music started to get better. In 1990, a band called Nirvana was born. Kurt Cobain was a small time punk rocker, his guitar skills weren't all that special, however his lyrics and his style of playing brought a whole new sound to the genre of Rock N' Roll, the grunge sound. The grunge style also showed how he lived. Kurt didn't seem to care about his outward appearance, all that mattered to him was the music that he made. He did however have a bad heroin addiction, which would drive him to his suicide three years after Nirvana was started. Another band that started to take off was the Red Hot Chili Peppers. They had a unique style of funk, punk, and rock. They were also a very talented band and their songs were widely played. In a lot of the songs however, John Frusciante (the guitar player) shows a lot of similarities with Jimi Hendrix in regards to rhythm guitar.
"Under the Bridge"
Red Hot Chili Peppers-1992
US Census
In the 1930's there were a lot of people aspiring to be musicians. Blues was mainly in the south as in Memphis, Tennessee, then Jazz was mainly in the north as in New York, New York, and Chicago, Illinois. The south was a key music area and it still is to this day. However when the 60's rolled in, many artists starting coming from the west. Places like California, Washington, and Illinois were popular areas. From the eighties until now, people starting coming from everywhere to play in America. Places like Ireland, England, Mexico, and many other places. A very famous music city in Georgia is Athens. Athens, Georgia has many artists from it's area.
Bibliography: Keil, Charles, and Robert Palmer. "Blues." Website For Teachers and Students. Encyclopedia of Chicago , 1991. Web. 12 May 2010. <http://encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/151.html>. "What is blues? ." African American History Resources. PBS, 2003. Web. 18 May 2010. <http://www.pbs.org/theblues/classroom/essaysblues.html>.